Dislike predates football in Ohio-Michigan rivalry

Ohio State offensive lineman Justin Boren (56) and teammates pose for a photo during the NCAA college football team's media day in Columbus. Boren is from Ohio and starts at left guard for the Buckeyes, but he used to play for the Wolverines.
ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO

COLUMBUS -- The deep and abiding enmity between Ohio and Michigan is certainly nothing new.

When teams from No. 10 Ohio State and Michigan meet on Saturday to play football for the 106th time, it'll just be the latest skirmish between two states and their residents who have despised each other for almost two centuries.

"We understand how important it is, not only here as a football squad, but the state as a whole, to get that victory against Michigan for the bragging rights for the year," Ohio State linebacker Austin Spitler said.

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The first offsides call took place early in the 19th century.

A disagreement over widely divergent surveys called into question the location of their border. Was Toledo in the new state of Ohio? Or in the territory of Michigan?

Ohio Gov. Robert Lucas, sounding a bit like a certain grumpy football coach, refused to even negotiate the line of scrimmage. In defiance, Lucas named the county in which Toledo was located after himself and appointed a sheriff and a judge.

Michigan's territorial governor, 22-year-old Stevens T. Mason, was outraged. He assembled a 250-member posse and marched south, initiating what was called the Toledo War.

It really wasn't much of a war. There was only one casualty, when an Ohioan named Two Stickney stabbed a Michigan sheriff in a tavern brawl.

Eventually, Michigan was forced to concede Toledo was in Ohio, but was pacified by a gift of 9,000 square miles of rich mining and timber land in the Upper Peninsula.

A Michigan government Web site sniffs, "In retrospect, it's obvious who won the War."

The two universities first met in football in 1897. They started playing annually in 1918, and since 1935 have renewed acquaintances in the final game of the season.

The vitriol between the two states and their two universities was magnified from 1969-78 when curmudgeonly Woody Hayes prowled and growled on the sidelines for the Buckeyes and Michigan was coached by the similarly stubborn and hardheaded Bo Schembechler -- an Ohio native and former Hayes acolyte.

Hayes refused to even utter the name of "the state up north." Legend has it -- although no one doubts it -- that the petulant, at times childish Hayes once ran out of gas in Michigan but pushed his car over the state line rather than spend his money there.

Something akin to that passion is handed down from generation to generation even today.

"I went to St. Mary's down in Lancaster, a little Catholic school. We had to wear our (school) uniforms, but for the Ohio State-Michigan game we got to dress up in either Ohio State or Michigan clothes," said Buckeyes offensive lineman Jim Cordle. "That was fun. We got to cheer into the PA system and then they'd measure (which team's fans) had the loudest cheer. And then every year we went to an Ohio State-Michigan party to watch the game."

The two states are so similar yet remain committed in their distaste for each other. Columbus drivers scowl at those behind the wheel of cars with Michigan plates. Graduates of the University of Michigan consider their rivals to be the Ivy League, Stanford, Cal -- certainly not the agricultural school down in Columbus.

Over the years, the rivalry has found been manifested in sports.

* In the 1940s, the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers were two of the best teams in the American League. Fans debated who was better, Bob Feller or Hal Newhouser? Lou Boudreau or Hank Greenberg?

* From 1950 to 1957, the Cleveland Browns of Otto Graham and the Detroit Lions led by Bobby Layne each won three NFL championships. (These days they are competing for the title of the league's worst team. That title will be decided on Sunday.)

* The Cleveland Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons have met in three physical, chippy playoff series this decade, the Pistons persevering in seven games in a second-round series in 2006, with the Cavs and LeBron James winning eight of 10 meetings in series wins in 2007 and last year.

* Last spring the Columbus Blue Jackets made the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time, but the upstarts were no match for the 11-time champion Detroit Red Wings. The Winged Wheels won in a sweep.

There are plenty of other ties between the states. Mark Dantonio, a former assistant coach at Ohio State, is now coach at Michigan State. Brian Kelly, a former head coach at Central Michigan, is now coach at fifth-ranked Cincinnati.

Just last week, Bruce Springsteen performed in Cleveland on Wednesday night and in Auburn Hills, Mich., two nights later. "The Boss" forgot where he was for the second gig and several times said, "Thank you, Ohio!" to silent Michiganders.

John Kerry made a similar gaffe during the 2004 presidential campaign, praising Ohio State's football team after he had crossed into Michigan. Yet he still won the state in the general election -- and lost Ohio.

The rivalry is clear to see when it comes to sports. And there's nothing quite like the jealousy, dislike and mistrust that seems to accompany "The Game," as the annual showdown has become known.

Ohio State wide receiver Dane Sanzenbacher will be playing in only his third showdown with the Wolverines. But as a native of Toledo, he has a particularly vivid view of the heated rivalry on both sides.

"There's always a little something extra when it comes to the Michigan game," he said. "It has a lot to do with the history. It goes back a long time."